Once again, VERO had a stall at the University's Freshers' Fair, making
our campaign known to the new students, hearing their views, and gaining new
supporters.

The term's events then began with an introductory evening at which VERO
founder-member Dr Matthew Simpson gave a brief talk on the two UK
vivisection acts of 1876 and 1986, followed by a showing of Jeffrey Masson's
moving and encouraging film The Emotional Lives of Farm Animals.

Next, Dr Andrew Knight, a practising vet and director of Animal
Consultants International, argued the case for "scientific activism" as an
effective strategy for ending vivisection. Having led a successful campaign
as a student to persuade his university in Australia to take the cruelty out
of its veterinary science course, Andrew has since published a wealth of
resources on humane alternatives in science education, and offering advice
to biomedical students wishing to conscientiously object to harmful animal
use in their courses.
You can download Andrew Knight's presentation as a Powerpoint file here: andrewknight.ppt

Dr Dan Lyons, Director of Uncaged Campaigns, looked at the politics of
animal experiments and highlighted the urgent need for greater transparency
and accountability on the part of the Home Office, based on his
award-winning thesis on the administration of the 1986 Animals (Scientific
Procedures) Act. He illustrated his argument with the shocking case of
xeno-transplantation (pig-to-primate) experiments performed by Imutrans and
dramatically exposed by Uncaged in 2003.
You can download Dan Lyons' presentation as a Powerpoint file here: danlyons.ppt

Finally, Oxford's own Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of the
Oxford Centre of Animal Ethics and the leading authority on the place of
animals in Christian thought, presented a powerful case for "why animal
suffering matters morally". He argued that the reasons traditionally given
for treating animals as our inferiors - for instance that they lack
language, foresight, moral awareness or an immortal soul - make them more
rather than less an object of our ethical concern.